Outsourcing Government / Business Partnerships

[AldebTX]

I will try to remain objective and I apologize for being long winded and if I insult anyone in advance.

I am one of those over paid $50K government employees whose local council has decided that outsourcing my job to local business is the way to go. There is a YouTube video on Sandy Springs, Ga....the City that Outsourced Everything

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8qFvo2qJOU&feature=player_embedded

that touts how a suburb of Atlanta cut the cost of local government in half with no effect on City Services. There are a couple of anti-democrat controlled government comments in the video but overall the video looks very well produced and glossing over it seems to make sense. It was shown at our council study session and now our council is almost rabid to outsource.

In fact in the last 3 months we have outsourced our trash collection and our local Library. The community does not seem to support the outsourcing by the comments at council meetings, but on the other hand I think if polled there is hardly a resident that does not feel that City employees are ripping them off somehow. I have had a number of residents say I should feel honored to work for City government and should do it on a volunteer basis instead of worrying about a wage. It has really polarized the community.

The results of this outsourcing from my perspective is.....the library staff was reduced by 20%. All the higher paid degreed librarians were replaced with minimum wage "helpers". Health benefits were cut for the library employees and employees are required to pay for their own "reduced cost" insurance from a salary deduction. Library hours were reduced. The savings were significant but I would argue that the product is not the same. The trash collection had much the same results with reduced levels of workers from the outsourced company, a reduction of wage levels by 40%, and no insurance coverage, altho the employees are allowed to buy their own. Collection times are greatly increased but trash is still picked up. There have been a number of complaints that the new employees aren't as friendly, but even I think that will change as the new employees get to know the residents on their route.

With these successes our Council is moving forward with privatization. It has been decided to outsource all the other departments keeping only Police and Fire internal. The Council is also keeping a City Manager and an Assistant City Manager to oversee the contractors but the rest of us are to be let go.

It sounds silly but I am concerned. I grew up in this City and have worked here 25 years. I can retire so from a personal basis I am not affected. It seems to me that residents are getting and going to get a lesser product, and on a day to day basis may not see a change but over the long term I am not so sure. The investment in infrastructure by these private companies are certainly less. Our library has certainly lost its research staff, and doesn't really provide that service any more. The current staff is there to "check out books".

Where I am going with this...is this what the average Citizen wants? Does anyone live in a privatized city and does it work? I am told by friends in what they call the "real world" that I am observing things from a too personal basis and all that really matters is the bottom line. It just seems we are ending up with a dumber library and no long term infrastructure investment for "our savings"

[ejpoeta]

1. as to whether you should volunteer to work for free... perhaps those who suggest that

would be kind enough to volunteer to work for THEIR employer too for free. since it is such an honor to have a job.

as to outsourcing everything, there will be consequences. when you add a middleman, you end up paying more in the end. and all those workers who are getting paid less aren't going to have extra money to spend in the community. assuming the workers are from the community.

when i was younger I would buy things that were cheaper because they were cheaper. As time went on I began to discover something.... If i bought cheaper shampoo, i had to use more to get the same result and therefore had to buy more sooner than I had to buy the other stuff that might have cost more. so then I ended up paying more. Or it was less quality of a product and would break or something and I had to replace it. Something that seems to be a savings doesn't always end up being a savings.

[angstlessk]

2. And the less a worker makes the less he pays in taxes..so it will

come back to bite then in the arse!